


Gavin, I Can't Stay.

by orphan_account



Series: Detroit Evolution Artfest [JUL 2020] [6]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Crying, DEArtfest, Detroit Evolution Artfest (Detroit: Become Human), Developing Relationship, Engagement, Fighting, Flashbacks, Kissing, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, Soulmate AU, Soulmates, You have the last word your soulmate will say to you tattooed on you, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25635667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Gavin, I can't stay.The words Gavin Reed's had written on his arm since he was born.The last words his soulmate will ever say to him.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: Detroit Evolution Artfest [JUL 2020] [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811665
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53





	Gavin, I Can't Stay.

[OCT. 27TH, 2039]

[10:38:28 PM]

“This isn’t the way back to Jericho…” Nines said slowly. Something wasn’t right. No, something was very wrong. The pit of dread low in his stomach grew as he stared at the back of Ada’s head. She turned to face Nines, almost surprised that Nines felt the need to state the obvious. Almost.

“No, Nines. It isn’t.” One moment, Ada was three feet in front of Nines. The next, he was on his knees, and Ada’s hand was on his neck. The edges of his vision filled with static, his audio processors froze altogether. 

[!DATA CORRUPTION!]

**SHE DOESN’T BELONG HERE**

[!DATA CORRUPTION!]

_**GET ADA OUT** _

Nines fought desperately to force Ada out of his system. He could feel her forcing her way through him. He wasn’t what she was after, he couldn’t let her get to it. All too soon she was gone, and he was left staring at the static-y brick wall of the alley. In his struggle to stop her, he hadn’t seen whatever she took from him. 

[!DATA CORRUPTION!]

[!DATA CORRUPTION!]

[ **CALLING** DETROIT POLICE DEPARTMENT]

[!SHUTDOWN IN: 30 SECONDS!]

Nines tried to blink away all the warnings, his head hitting the wall behind him disorienting him even more than he had been before. 

[!SHUTDOWN IN: 28 SECONDS!]

“Nines! _Nines_!” He could hear someone shouting his name. Just barely. Gavin. His partner. Gavin filled his limited vision. Calloused hands cupped his face. “W-What happened? W-where’s Ada?”

[!SHUTDOWN IN: 25 SECONDS!]

“Gav… in… Gav… in…” His partner’s name was the only thing he could muster. His vision was blurring. But he could still make out Gavin’s features. He was the most scared Nines had ever seen. His hands were shaking. 

[!SHUTDOWN IN: 22 SECONDS!]

“Ad- Ada…” Ada… Ada… Ada… Ada… Ada. Ada. Ada. Ada. _Ada. Ada. Ada. Ada. Ada. Ada. Ada. **Ada. Ada. Ada. Ada. Ada**_. Ada did this to him. Ada betrayed him. Ada. Ada. Ada. _Ada. Ada. Ada. **Ada. Ada. ADA. ADA. ADA**_.

[!SHUTDOWN IN: 20 SECONDS!]

“Hey. Hey, hey, hey, look at me. You’re going to be okay.” Gavin said. Nines’ eyes fogged over at the mention of Ada. Not a good sign. 

[!SHUTDOWN IN: 16 SECONDS!]

“Gav- Gav- in…” Nines tried to speak. He could barely get Gavin’s name out. There was no way he could say more. Or was he even able to get Gavin’s name out? He couldn’t tell. He kept repeating his partner’s name. Gavin was the only thing he had. 

[!SHUTDOWN IN: 13 SECONDS!]

“I’m right here. I’m right here, tincan. I’m not going anywhere,” Gavin said. All he could do was cradle Nines’ face and listen to him repeat the syllables of his name like a broken record player. Nines was looking at him, though his gaze was unfocused. 

[ **!SHUTDOWN IN: 6 SECONDS!** ]

Nines’ LED started to flicker from red, to not on at all. Shit. Gavin was losing him. “Nines! Nines, stay with me, Don’t fall asleep. I need you to stay awake for me.”

[ **SHUTDOWN IN: 3 SECONDS!** ]

“Gav- I can’t-” Nines shook his head slightly, the best that he could. “I can’t stay awake- Gavin, I can’t stay-”

[ _ **!SHUTTING DOWN!**_ ]

Gavin watched as Nines’ eyes closed and his LED went dark, permanently. No, no, no, no! Fuck. Fuck. Fuck! The human watched Nines’ start to fall towards the side, moving so that he’d fall into Gavin’s lap. He looked back towards the exit of the ally to shout for help, only to see the familiar sight of blue and red flashing lights.

\----

“Gavin..?” A quiet call of his name brought him back to reality. He looked to the left to see Tina, his best friend, looking at him with concern. “Are you alright?”

Gavin had half the mind to shout and get angry at her. Of course he wasn’t alright! He was anything but alright! His partner, though only technically, died right in front of him. In his arms. The Cyberlife doctors wouldn’t let him stay with Nines, much less tell him if they thought they could save him or not.

And he had a feeling they wouldn’t be able to. 

But Gavin was tired. Even though he wanted to get mad. Even though he wanted to scream. He didn’t have the energy. He wanted to work the pain away. But what was new there? “...no. I’m not alright.”

“It almost seems as if you have already made up your mind that Nines is going to die.” 

“He practically died in my arms, T.”

“Cyberlife created him. They know what’s supposed to be there and what’s not. I’m confident they’ll be able to save him.”

“Not even the best doctors in the world can save every patient…”

“Why do you think they won’t be able to save Nines?” Gavin stared at Tina for a long time, wondering if he should tell her. He sighed and took off his jacket, setting it on the back of his chair, before giving Tina his now bare arm, where his soulmark was. Every human was born with it, the last words your soulmate will ever say. Some claimed that it was written in the soulmate’s handwriting, though there was no science behind it, plus handwriting can change all the time, so there was no real way to prove it. The words written, in very clear and neat handwriting:

_“Gavin, I can’t stay.”_

Tina read the words on his arm, then glanced at him with an eyebrow raised. She didn’t touch his arm, she knew that he didn’t like being touched, but he was looking away from him. Gavin saw the confused look and remembered that, without context, those words meant nothing to her. “Those were the last thing Nines said to me before he shut down.”

“You think Nines is your soulmate?”

“I-” Gavin wanted to say that Nines being his soulmate was not what he said, but it was, in fact, exactly what he said. He wanted to object, to keep his walls, even around his best friend. It was entirely possible that Nines was his soulmate, and if that were the case, according to his soulmark, Nines was as good as dead. “I… I mean, who else could it be? Nines is the closest I’ve been to a person in a long time, and I know he has feelings for me, he never did do a good job of hiding it…” Gavin was rambling again. A nervous habit that had haunted him since he was a child. One he never could seem to get rid of. One that almost got him killed that night, years ago. 

“...what if the only way to save him is to reset him? He’ll come back, he’ll be alive. But he won’t be the same…” Gavin said quietly. Tina opened her mouth to answer, but someone else spoke first. 

“Don’t worry, Detective Reed. We would never reset a deviant.” 

\----

Gavin took a long drag of his cigarette, staring down at the passing traffic only a floor below. Nines, though he had given Gavin the scare of his life, turned out okay. They caught Ada, deviated her, and let her go. He knew Nines would probably prod at him for smoking once he arrived, but Gavin didn’t care. 

He looked up when he heard footsteps, scoffing when he saw the approaching android smiling at him. Gavin threw the cigarette on to the ground below as Nines stopped next to him, leaning an elbow on the safety railing. “Yeah, yeah, I know. It’ll kill me.” The human grumbled. 

“After the raid yesterday, I think nicotine is the last thing you have to worry about,” Nines said. Gavin turned around so that he was leaning back against the railing, one arm supporting his weight, leaving him slightly facing his partner. 

“We survived, like always. But I think I’ll be alright, long as I got a terminator lookin’ out for me,” Gavin said with a slight smile. Nines was silent for a moment, swallowing before speaking. 

“Gavin, I’ve been processing… these past few days. I- Its all happened so fast, and we haven’t had the chance to discuss anything, really.”

“Yeah… buyer’s remorse, huh? Heard that one before.”

“Of course not,” Nines said, almost offended at Gavin’s comment, though his face quickly softened. “I- I want to be close to you, but I can’t be everything you need.”

“Everything..?” Gavin asked, standing straight up. Nines followed suit, leaving the two facing each other. 

“We’ve discussed this before... when you mentioned my interest in Ada…”

“Whoa, whoa. Let me get this straight. So you think, that I put up with a year of your _shit_ , a year of that… ken doll face smirkin’ at me every day, then put up with you _almost dying_ , just so I could get laid?” Gavin shook his head slightly in disbelief. “Nines, I don’t care. I don’t need… any of that. Ever since I met you, things have just been… better.”

Nines sighed, “I just want to be complete for you…”

“You’ve been a whole person since the day you woke up. I’ve been lucky, if I can scrounge together enough parts of myself to function in the morning,” Gavin joked. Nines stepped closer to Gavin, cupping the other’s cheek with a now white hand.

“You are more than enough for me,” Nines said quietly. Gavin smiled and placed his hand on top of Nines’ own. They were silent for a moment, Gavin’s eyes closed and Nines admiring him.

“Why does this happen sometimes? With your skin?” Gavin asked, taking Nines’ hand away from his face so that he could better examine the android’s chassis. He ran his hand over the back of Nines’ hand, then the palm, which turned into them pressing both their palms together. 

“Androids retract our skin to interface, which can be a sign of affection among partners,” Nines said, looking at their hands with a small smile. “I don’t have much control over it around you.”

“Yeah, I know. I just wanted to hear you say it.” Gavin said, going back to absentmindedly running his fingers over the white plastic of Nines’ hand. 

“A while ago, you said I needed to figure out what I wanted. I didn’t want to be a hunter, or a killer… I- I wanted to protect people. Protect you. I meant what I said, Gavin. I’m not going anywhere.”

Gavin nodded his head with a smile. “Yeah, me neither, tincan.”

Gavin leaned up and press his lips to Nines’ who bent down to make the kiss easier from the shorter man. They pulled away a moment later, eyes still closed, and press their foreheads together. They stayed like that for a while, the sun setting behind them. 

“...Did I ever tell you why you dying my arms scarred me so much?” Gavin asked after a long silence. Nines opened his eyes to look at him, but he kept their foreheads together. 

“Me dying wasn’t enough?” Gavin scoffed to disguise a laugh. 

“Shut up… I was convinced you were dead, gone forever, because of my soulmarks.”

“Soulmarks?”

“The last thing you said to me before you shut down was the same as the words on my arm. I know it’s a big jump to say that you’re my soulmate, but…”

“I’m the closest you’ve been to another person in a long time?”

“I hate you.”

“You love me.”

\----

[JAN 27TH 2049]

[10:38:28]

They were fighting again. Their relationship was far from perfect, but Gavin wished that they didn’t fight the way they did. Gavin wished that angriest he sees Nines wasn’t anger directed at him. The cats were hiding away, probably under the bed to avoid the shouting match in the living room. 

“Maybe, if you could start acting like the person I know you are instead of the _**RK900**_ you were, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” Gavin shouted, spitting out Nines’ model number as if it were a curse. Nines looked at Gavin surprised, until it was turned back into anger. He let out a noise akin to a growl, before turning around and grabbing his keys from the hooks on next to the door. “And just where are you going?”

“Away from here! Away from you! I can’t say right now.” Nines shouted, pulling his white coat over his shoulders. 

“Don’t you fucking dare walk away from this, Nines!”

“Maybe I’ll come back when you decide not to throw my model number around! For now, Gavin, I can’t stay.” Nines yelled, opening and shutting the door behind him. Gavin stared at the door, before letting out a frustrated shout and turning on his heel. Where he was going, he wasn’t sure. But he needed to find something to either calm him in his godforsaken apartment he shared with that godforsaken android.

Nines marched down the apartment complex hallway, his glare enough to make even the friendliest neighbors avoid him. He made his way to the elevator, pressing the button to bring him to the complex’s parking garage. Now alone, with his only task to wait, Nines took a moment to breathe and try to calm himself down.

At this point, the actual argument wasn’t what made his blood boil. It was Gavin’s use of his model and the implications that came with it. He had spit it out like a curse, implied that he as still a machine. 

Still designed to kill. 

_Breathe, Nines._

_Breathe._

Nines was breathing incredibly slow. While he didn’t need to, the action was usually calming. Blind rage was gone, but he was still upset. Still hurt. He squeezed his finger’s into his palms until his nails punctured the synthetic skin layer. He opened his hands and stared at the scars he had just made into his hands. An injury this insignificant wouldn’t need repairing. 

Nines starred at his hands until the elevator stopped and the doors opened in front of him. He quickly made his way to his car, a gift from his DPD friends on his 5th activation day. Driving had always helped clear his head, going for a drive couldn’t hurt, right?

Nines couldn’t have been more wrong. With no location in mind, he idly drove through the streets of Detroit, his mind spiraling with thoughts. Gavin’s use of his model number echoed in his mind. 

_Gavin was just with me because he thought I wasn’t alive. He thought I would just follow his every order. He doesn’t love me. I’m a machine. I was built to kill. I could never change that-_

Somehow his thought circled to Ada. It had been almost a decade since she attacked him in that back alley, but that night still hung over his head. She had chosen him because of his model number. That was all he was to her. 

Nines tighten his grip on the steering wheel. His vision started to fill with static and his ears with high-pitched feedback. He passed a blue light, and suddenly, he was there. Looking at the back of Ada’s head. It wasn’t the first time he’d had these flashbacks. They were always the same, an exact recount of the events. After he shut down, there’d be nothing for a few seconds, then he’d be right where he was before, with those around him looking at him with concern. 

But this time, it was different. Where his HUD should have said [DATA CORRUPTION], it gave a warning of rapidly depleting thirium levels. To fast. He shut down before Gavin got to him.

\----

Gavin put on a movie,several if fact. They provided a nice distraction, but in between each his thoughts went back to Nines. His anger had gone away by the end of the first film, replaced by guilt for what he had said. He knew what that number meant to Nines, how could he use it the way that he had?

It was long into the early hours of the morning by now. Gavin was tired, but he couldn’t sleep. Not when he was unsure about Nines. How he felt at that moment, and where he was. When they fought, usually he’d be back by now. Maybe he had chosen to stay the night at Connor’s? Maybe he should call Connor to find out.

Just as he got up to look for his phone, it started to ring, startling the cat that was laying on top of it. Adri jumped off of the coffee table, to show the caller ID. Gavin froze.

_Incoming Call…_

_CYBERLIFE_

“Gavin, I can’t stay.”

The last words Nines had said to him before he left.

The same words on his arm.

“Is this Detective Reed?” The familiar voice of Nines’ doctor filled his ears. He hadn’t even realized he answered the phone.

“Y-Yes, it is.”

“I’m sorry to be the one to inform you, but Nines got into a car crash earlier this evening. “ Gavin’s blood ran cold. He didn’t even have to ask if Nines survived. Not with the last thing, Nines had said to him was written on his arm. 

“He was hit by a drunk driver running a red light. They hit the driver’s side and the door caved in on Nines. The damage is irreversible. I’m sorry, Detective Reed.” 

Gavin didn’t leave his apartment for the next two months. Tina came over to feed the cats and make sure Gavin was eating, but he barely said anything to her when she did. He spent his days staring at the ring on his left hand or with his face buried in a pillow as he balled his eyes out. He felt week for crying, but he couldn’t care. Nines was gone. The first person he had let in since his mother died. His soulmate. His world.

Nines was just gone.


End file.
